Drinks giant Coca-Cola has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to start a three-year campaign to protect polar bears in the Arctic.

The Arctic Home campaign, launched today with an exhibition at the Science Museum in central London, aims to raise awareness and funds to conserve the icy habitat of the bears.

According to the WWF, summer sea ice in the Arctic is disappearing at a rapid pace due to climate change, at a rate of around 11% per decade, a much faster rate than scientists had predicted.

Coca-Cola, which has featured the animals in their adverts for almost a century, has already pledged three million euros (£2.5m) over three years to the WWF as part of the effort.

Funds raised will protect the home of the polar bear by working with local communities as well as supporting scientific research and helping to reduce conflict between people and bears.

Gordon Buchanan, wildlife filmmaker and presenter of the BBC series the Polar Bear Family And Me, spent last year filming the animals in the Arctic.

He said: "There's a connection that people make with bear species, whether it's grizzly bears or black bears or polar bears, there is something, because they're quite similar to us in many ways."

Mr Buchanan, who is an ambassador for the campaign, added: "Having spent time with polar bears in their natural habitat I've pretty much transformed the way that I live my life as far as just starting at home, switching off the lights if you don't need them on, closing the door of the fridge as quick as possible, saving energy, not wasting food, not spending money needlessly on disposable items.

"We're talking about a population today of about 20,000 polar bears living in the wild - with a loss of the Arctic habitat you can just about half or get down to 10% of that.

"Then if you throw into the mix the effect pollutants in their ecosystem will have on them and potential disease of an already endangered animal, it could have catastrophic effects.

"Do I think polar bears are going to go extinct in the wild within the next 10 years? No, but if we look forward to another 100 years carrying on as we are, yes the future for polar bears is really bleak."

Rod Downie, Polar programme manager at WWF UK, said the Government needed to do more to help

"The Government's position is confused and really conflicting. On one hand they're claiming they need to tackle climate change whilst on the other hand they're supporting UK companies that want to drill in the Arctic. Now clearly the two are incompatible.

"If we look back to 2006, WWF took David Cameron up to the Arctic to witness first-hand the effects of climate change. Cameron was photographed hugging the huskies. Clearly he's forgotten that commitment now.

"We need to be moving toward a much more sustainable and renewable future. We need to get off the oil hook."

On Coca-cola's contribution, Geoff York, Polar Bear biologist for WWF's global Arctic programme, said: "Working with large corporates for us is the way to make change happen."